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Ghost Rider movie review

February 26, 2007

I enjoyed Ghost Rider (directed by Mark Steven Johnson) even though I am not a comic book fan and I had not read the Johnny Blaze comics on which this movie is based. I wonder why reviewers here trashed the movie. It’s certainly not trash, though silly in parts, but more of that later.
Well, it’s basically a fantasy action type of movie and if you like that, you will find this one quite alright. Based on a comic book character, it is about a stunt motorcyclist who gives up his soul to become the devil’s bounty hunter and fights the son of the devil – Blackheart. There is fast action and a lot of motor cycle stunts. Nicholas Cage plays Johnny Blaze. Johnny leads a normal life by day as a stuntman and showman, but at night he transforms into a blazing monstor figure with a bike that is also on fire, like him.
The characters all seemed paper cut outs but then it didn’t seem to matter much because of the genre of the movie. If one is looking for some deep meaningful dialogues, a riveting story or even witty lines, it isn’t here. It’s an out and out superficial action flick. Not too deep and very very predictable, and even the stunts are not top class. Yet, the movie is decent time-pass. I wasn’t bored at all.
Matt Long acts well as the young Johnny Blaze, but he looks jarringly different from the older version (Nicholas Cage). In fact like many reviewers I too felt that Nicholas Cage was not right for the role. Though I like Cage as an actor (one of the reasons why I went for the movie), he doesn’t look like a Superhero here. In fact he doesn’t seem to try to be like one. He looks too skinny for one thing. And he has a certain effiminate look about him throughout. Raquel Alessi as a young Roxanne and Eva Mendes as the older one were stunning. True, they didn’t have much of a role but then in action movies the woman is often just a decoration.

Interestingly, the movie is doing some innovative marketing here in India. Take a look at this:

Thats a Volvo Bus and it runs on the Mumbai-Pune route. I haven’t seen this myself but it is reported that the bus is painted in such a way that when the wheels of the bus turn, it appears as if the wheels of ‘Ghost Rider’ Bike are turning.

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